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Genus Crassula Family Crassulaceae

Description: Annuals and perennials with prostrate, decumbent or ascending, slightly fleshy stems.

Leaves opposite, succulent, ± cylindrical to globose or flat and semisucculent, sessile or rarely petiolate.

Flowers 4- or 5-merous. Sepals slightly fused at base. Corolla shortly fused, usually cup-shaped with short spreading lobes. Stamens 4 or 5, hypogynous or perigynous. Carpels free or basally fused, each subtended by a carpel scale, ovary usually gradually tapering into style.

Follicles dehiscing by an apical pore or longitudinal slit.


Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 300 species, mainly Africa. Australia: 14 species (8 species endemic.), all States.

Text by J. Everett & E. H. Norris
Taxon concept:

Taxa not yet included in identification key
Crassula colligata,    Crassula ericoides,    Crassula spathulata,    Crassula tetramera

 Key to the species 
1Leaves less than 12 mm long; flowers borne in the axils of leaf-like bracts2
Leaves more than 12 mm long; flowers in more or less leafless inflorescences borne well above leaves7
2Calyx at least as long as the corolla; flowers in the axils of both leaves at a node; flowers 4- or 5-merous3
Calyx half to two-thirds as long as corolla; flowers in the axil of one leaf at each node; flowers 4-merous
                       Back to 1
6
3Flowers mainly 4-merous4
Flowers mainly 5-merous
                       Back to 2
5
4Lateral cymes pedunculateCrassula decumbens
Lateral cymes sessile in leaf axils
                       Back to 3
Crassula sieberiana
5Follicles more or less sessile, pedicels to 1 mm long in fruitCrassula colorata
Follicles distinctly stalked, pedicels to 8 mm long in fruit
                       Back to 3
Crassula decumbens
6Style less than a quarter as long as ovary, ovary abruptly constricted into the style; leaves 0.5–1 mm wideCrassula peduncularis
Style about half as long as ovary, the ovary gradually tapering into style; leaves 1–2 mm wide
                       Back to 2
Crassula helmsii
7Leaves more than 10 mm wide, lamina ovate, obovate or broad-elliptic, narrowed into petiole or leaf base8
Leaves less than 5 mm wide, linear to triangular, scarcely constricted at base
                       Back to 1
Crassula tetragona
8Leaves toothed; petiole 0–3 mm longCrassula sarmentosa
Leaves entire; petiole 5–25 mm long
                       Back to 7
Crassula multicava

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